Papercuttings

I haven't been able to think of anything interesting lately to write about so I thought I would share some of my papercuttings. About 10-12 years ago I began by cutting paper snowflakes from a booklet I found at Ben Franklen. Back then it was really hard to find patterns so I started researching at the library and on line and I found that there is much more to this art than just snowflakes. These first two cuttings are ones that I designed myself. This design was inspired by a picture in a magazine. And this one from a Dover book of flowers. It looks like designing a papercut would be easy but once you start cutting you realize it's tougher than it looks. The entire design needs to be in one piece and the inner cuts need to give the piece dimension. There's no erasing a mistake...once you make the cut that piece is gone! That's why most of my cuttings are done using patterns that I get from Papercuttings by Alison. They have some great designs and each pattern is rated as to how difficult it is to cut...Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced. This is a small family owned business with Alison and her mom Gloria designing most of the patterns. How neat is that and they also have patterns from other talented designers. When I cut I use a tiny pair of Hofer scissors made ecspecially for papercutting. They are made in Switzerland and are a bit pricey but if you cut alot they are well worth it. When I began cutting I used my Gingher embroidery scissors. I very seldom use an exacto knife but there are alot of people that do...some don't use scissors at all and use just the exacto. I only use it for really tiny cuts that I can't make with the scissors but my Hofer scissors have a point as thin as a needle so I can cut almost anything with them. This next group of cuttings are done using patterns from Papercutting by Alison. Tiny ballarina's: I think would lood cute mounted on pink paper and framed individually in little white frames. More ballarina's: A Butterfly: A fancy fan: A couple of heart designs:

These last designs are reproductions that I have done of vintage papercuttings:

Two colonial couples...ladies reading and sewing: Men playing a game of chess:

I really love these old sihlouettes from the colonial period. I think they would look great hung next to each other.

A rooster... another reproduction:

I was thinking of trying to sell some of my cuttings on Etsy and/or Lollishops but I'm just not sure they would sell. What do you think?

I guess the only way to find out is to list a few of them.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my cuttings.

I encourage you to give it a try. You can get a beginners pattern from Papercuttings by Alison for well under $10 and I'm sure you will find something that you like. They also offer scissors and paper.

I'm cheap and cut most of my designs from regular copy paper. And if you don't want to buy a pattern to start out you can always copy a design from one of the books on papercutting at the library or do a google search for designs.

If you want to see some really cool examples you can visit the Guild of American Papercutters site.